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The uniforms were made of wool. I wore a reproduction of this type of uniform when I was reenacting. Yes it was hot in the summer but their bodies were more accustomed to the heat than ours are. Many soldiers wore cotton shirts underneath but there are many instances of them wearing wool shirts as well, including at Gettysburg, which of course took place in July.

Those two recessed walls are done in Scottish bond (like so many others we've seen here) but the center wall is mainly done in runner bond - with a twist. Looks as though the width of that section was a bit too wide for the dimensions of a common brick and so they had to fill in a little bit with brick-pieces. There's damage at the bottom of that section, too, causing - what looks like - a collapse. Was it hit by a cannonball?

Hi - New commenter John in New Orleans here, even though I've enjoyed the incredible photos for a while...

Yep - I think it's high summer (leaves on the trees) in Virginia and those are wool clothes - and those guys are probably lucky to have them! I don't want to think about how long they might have had them on...

Shorpy.com | History in HD is a vintage photo blog featuring thousands of high-definition images from the 1850s to 1950s. The site is named after Shorpy Higginbotham, a teenage coal miner who lived 100 years ago.